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GOP convention: About last night

Susan Page declares: “It is Paul Ryan's party now.” He “signaled the emergence of a more conservative, more combative generation of leaders who are reshaping the Republican Party.”

Ron Brownstein: “Paul Ryan’s forceful but prosaic acceptance speech on Wednesday continued one of the campaign’s most surprising strategic twists: the Republican effort to take the offensive on Medicare. Although polls show that Ryan’s proposal to transform Medicare into a premium-support, or voucher, system still faces enormous public skepticism, he aggressively insisted that President Obama’s health care plan represents the real threat to the giant program for the elderly.”

Molly Ball: “At the Republican convention Wednesday night, there was indeed a lofty, high-minded speech, one that managed to forcefully articulate a conservative world view without cheap partisan attacks or facts stretched to the breaking point. But it wasn't Ryan's -- it was delivered by Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state. Rice's address had a sophistication, ease, and grace almost never found in modern political speeches. It was a speechwriter's speech, the kind you could imagine reading in a history book. She spoke with a diplomat's formality and the teleprompter turned off, glancing only occasionally at her notes on the podium.”

“Tuning in to the Republican National Convention this week, viewers could be forgiven for thinking they had switched on the Democratic convention of yesteryear, what with all the up-and-coming women and minority politicians taking the stage,” National Journal writes. “It’s a contrast with Democrats, who will trot out a bunch of timeworn white guys next week in Charlotte to help make the party’s case to the nation.”

Let’s be fair, though: The Democrats’ keynote speaker is Hispanic and the president of the United States is black.